[…]Historians of monetary unions have often observed that unions without a central fiscal authority and with too divergent institutions have a high probability of disintegration. In the 1998 issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy devoted to European Monetary Union, my colleagues were sceptical about the Stability and Growth Pact, while I worried that differences in housing and credit market institutions would cause serious tensions with a common monetary policy, as Ireland and Spain proved (see Maclennan et al. 1998).17 But there is nothing like a crisis to finally bring on the necessary reforms. The Eurozone can still survive – with the right policies.[…]